Joe Schmidt cool on Highlanders link but Irish future uncertain

Joe Schmidt insists he has made no commitment to joining Super Rugby’s reigning champions the Highlanders but his future with Ireland remains uncertain beyond next summer.

The Irish head coach, preparing the national side for tomorrow’s second Test in Johannesburg, said he had had a “very light conversation” with Highlanders chief executive Roger Clark before the tour as the New Zealand franchise looks for a successor to Tony Brown, whose contract expires at the end of next season, roughly a month after Schmidt’s IRFU deal runs outs on June 30, 2017.

Asked yesterday if a move to the Highlanders was a done deal, New Zealand-born Schmidt replied: “No, that was on the back of one conversation that Roger Clark had with me and I have made absolutely no commitment to the Highlanders, I’ve made no commitment to anyone other than my current employers.”

Schmidt has made great play of the importance of long-term planning for his team’s development into the next World Cup in 2019, yesterday making five changes to the side which beat the Springboks last weekend and handing out three more potential Test debuts. Yet he denied that had anything to do with his personal situation, the former Leinster boss set to inform the IRFU of his plans after the current tour.

“Whatever happens, this is the full focus of my attention and the one thing I want to do no matter what happens in the future is I want to leave Irish rugby in as good a shape as possible. If that’s this time next year or if it’s in three years’ time, I’m not sure.

“All I know is that this is something we’ve got to try to do and we’re investing a lot of time and effort, as are the players, into trying to be as good with a broader group as we possibly can be.”

Of the Highlanders’ current coaching staff Schmidt added: “I haven’t even given it any thought to be honest, because the conversation was just before the tour and I’ve very much got my hands full now.”